ow! ow! ow!

i thought it would be a lovely night for an after-supper walk…
“where will i walk to?” i asked myself.
“you could walk to the park,” my self answered.
“it may be up hill, but it’s really just a block away. i want to go somewhere i can take a few pictures and be out for a while.”
“you could drive to the seawall.”
“yeah, but then i’ll be too tempted to just drive there, get disillusioned with the idea of a walk, and then drive home.”
“yeah, you are lazy like that.”
“hey!”
“well… you are. so, what about down lonsdale?”
“gah! there are people there!”
“there are people everywhere, dork.”
“hrmf. so? doesn’t mean i want them to see me waddling around.”
“why not? you can check out all the shops you don’t know exist.”
“i guess…”
“you could walk down to dad’s place! stop in all casual-like and maybe he’ll give you a ride home!”
“ooh, good thinking! how far is that?”
“um… 20 blocks.”
“20 blocks!”
“all downhill, doofus.”
“well, okay. fine. down lonsdale it is.”
i got to dad’s house and he wasn’t there, so i sat in the park across the street and took a couple pictures. somehow, i convinced myself that i wasn’t ready to go home yet, so i kept walking. i stopped in victoria park and watched a cute, blond guy try to train his dog to no avail. he might not have thought i was cute, but his dog sure did. i’m fairly sure that’s not a good thing, though.
while sitting on the park bench taking stealthy photos of old people sitting at the cenotaph, i realized my feet were getting sore. i wasn’t wearing my good walking shoes and these were rubbing something awful; but i was so very close to the bottom! eight blocks to go! i was almost there! like a trooper, off i went. by the time i got down to the quay at the bottom every step was making the three blisters i could identify by feel squish and almost squeak. luckily i didn’t have to wait long for my bus to take off (after a friendly “hello, sister operator” from the bus driver).
35 blocks and 3.63 4 kilometres (2.25 2.5 miles) later, i’m home with my feet on ice packs because i don’t have anything big enough to soak them in. other than some sore tootsies, i feel great. it’s a beautiful evening and i actually got out there to enjoy it. now, i’ll watch some bad tv and wait for the fireworks… if i can stay up that late.